Detroit is searching for a new police chief at what could not be a more difficult time.
Cops have taken a 10% pay cut and reductions in their pensions and health care. They now work 12-hour shifts in an attempt to stretch the department's thin resources, even as the number of killings in the city hits a four-year high.
Many rank-and-file officers are demoralized and outraged over the pay and work-rule changes imposed by Mayor Dave Bing as he tries to fix the city's dire finances while enabling the Police Department to push more officers from desk to street duty. Yet, despite six months of state oversight of the city's finances, Detroit could still run out of cash by the end of the year, risking additional layoffs, furloughs and payless paydays.
And Bing -- who tenure in office has been filled with missteps -- might have only a year left in office, if he decides not to run next year, or runs and loses.
Making matters worse, according to Matt Helms and Gina Damron in the Free Press, the next person to command the 2,600-member force will be the city's fourth police chief in four years, following Bing's firing of James Barren, the forced resignation of Warren Evans and this month's retirement of Ralph Godbee Jr. amid a sex scandal involving an internal affairs officer.
"I'm not going to try to BS anybody -- it's going to be difficult," Bing conceded in an interview with the Free Press.
